


Friends & Neighbors

by SuburbanSun



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Neighbors, F/M, Fluff, Skye Ships Fitzsimmons, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-30
Updated: 2015-03-30
Packaged: 2018-03-20 08:05:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3642855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SuburbanSun/pseuds/SuburbanSun
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Skye couldn’t possibly have ulterior motives for getting her friend Fitz and her neighbor Jemma in a room together, then leaving, could she?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friends & Neighbors

**Author's Note:**

  * For [agent85](https://archiveofourown.org/users/agent85/gifts).



> Written for a fic prompt meme on Tumblr, so you may have already seen it there. Agent-85 requested Fitzsimmons + "It wasn't supposed to happen like that," and Fitz & Skye + "I'll be right over." Thanks for the prompt!

"Fitz, just come over.”

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose and shrugging the phone between his ear and his shoulder. “Are you literally telling me that you’re a computer hacker… who can’t figure out how to hook up her DVR?” Skye huffed, and he could perfectly picture her indignant face.

“Excuse me, Mr. I-Have-To-Watch-Every-Episode-of-Game-of-Thrones-Three-Times-to-Fully-Appreciate-Its-Nuances, but I don’t watch a ton of TV. I never needed to hook it up.”

Fitz scowled. “Making fun of me isn’t going to help your case.”

“It’s so easy though,” she said, laughing. “Okay, okay, fine. If you come over and hook up my DVR for me, I’ll… cook you dinner one night next week.”

“Rice-a-Roni and microwaved turkey burgers? No thanks.”

“Ugh. Fine. I’ll… I’ll wash your car this weekend.”

“Forecast calls for rain.”

Skye groaned into the phone. “Fine! I’ll… I’ll… ooh! I won’t invite myself to brunch again next time your mom is in town.”

Fitz went silent for a moment. He thought back to the last time his mum had visited. All he’d heard for months had been “When are you going to get together with that nice Skye girl?” and “I’m not going to wait for grandchildren forever, you know.” He shuddered.

“Deal. I’ll be right over.” He hung up without waiting for her to reply, tossing his phone on the bed beside him. “She’d never survive in Westeros,” he muttered as he stood up to pull jeans on over his boxers.

 

\--

 

“Took you long enough.”

“Good to see you, too, Skye,” he deadpanned, giving his friend a one-armed hug as he shut her apartment door behind him. “So where’s the offending contraption?”

Skye waved vaguely at her living room. “Over there.” Fitz spotted the DVR sitting on the hardwood floor in front of the TV, and went to pick it up. The cables were all attached to the system itself, just not to the TV.

"Skye, you do know these are color-coded, yes?”

A knock at the door distracted Skye before she could answer him, and he got to work hooking up the machine. Twisted at the waist with his head and shoulders behind the TV, he could only hear muffled voices coming from the entryway. After quickly plugging in four cables, he was finished.

“Hey, Skye, I feel like you got the raw end of this deal, because that was a piece of cake and my mum’s--” He stopped short when he straightened up to see that Skye was standing not fifteen feet away with--

“You remember Jemma Simmons, from 2B?”

Fitz nodded, mouth suddenly dry. Of course he remembered Jemma Simmons from 2B. He had been nursing a crush on her-- and avoiding her because of it-- for the majority of the 11 months since Skye had signed her lease.

“Hello! Fitz, is it?” Jemma smiled at him warmly, crossing the room with her hand extended. He shook it, nodding once more.

“How is it possible you two haven’t officially met? I’ve lived here a year.”

Fitz tore his gaze away from Jemma to look at Skye. His eyes widened when he saw her picking up her keys from the table by the door. “What-- um-- what?”

“I thought we could have a movie night now that the DVR is all fixed! Thanks a million for that, by the way, Fitz.” Skye opened the door and began to walk backwards out of it as Fitz tried to signal panic with his eyes. “I’m just going to pop out and pick up a pizza! Be back in 30 minutes or less, or your money back!” He could hear her laughing at her own joke as she shut and locked the door behind her.

And then there were two.

Fitz stared at the door for a moment before chancing a look at Jemma. She wore an amused smile, head tilted. “Is she always--” she began.

“Like that?” he finished. “Yeah. Yeah, I s’pose so.” He brought one hand up to scratch at the back of his neck.

“So.”

“So…”

“Shall we sit? Maybe choose a movie while Skye’s gone?”

Fitz nodded-- it seemed to be all he remembered how to do-- and moved toward the couch at the same time Jemma did. He gestured to it. “Oh, you can--”

“No, go ahead--”

“No, no, you have a seat.”

She shrugged and smiled, then took a seat on the couch-- right in the middle. Fitz swallowed and sat down beside her, closer than he thought he should (though still further away than he wanted). He picked up the remote from the coffee table and flipped on the TV, quickly navigating to On Demand.

“Do you have a preference?” he asked.

“What kind of movies do you like?” she asked at the same time. They met each others’ eyes before looking away, laughing. Fitz tried to fight a grimace at his own never-ending awkwardness. “Let’s try that again,” she said. “What would you like to watch?”

“I’m flexible. I mean--” He could feel his cheeks flushing. “I like all kinds of movies. Well, no, I don’t mean, like, _porn_.” His eyes widened, and he felt himself grow redder. “I mean, I like porn just fine.” At that point, Fitz would have been surprised if there were any blood left in his body that wasn’t currently heating his cheeks. He squeezed his eyes shut. “Shut up, Fitz,” he muttered.

He would have expected her to be halfway out the door by the time he opened his eyes, but instead she just watched him, a hand at her mouth and mirth in her eyes.

“Porn’s probably not the best choice for tonight, but maybe a documentary?” she suggested. “Something a bit more realistic?”

Fitz let out a relieved puff of air. “Yeah, that sounds great.” He passed her the remote, and she began to scroll through the documentary choices. He watched her out of the corner of his eye as she squinted to read the titles and descriptions. Every now and then, he would notice her glance at him the same way, and he would try to quickly shift his gaze back to the TV. He was pretty sure she caught him watching her, anyway.

Just after reaching the “L-N” section, Jemma sighed and set the remote down on the coffee table. She turned in her seat on the couch to face him, her right knee nearly brushing his left thigh.

“Look, I have to admit something to you.”

He nodded for her to continue.

“I know we only officially just met tonight, but I know who you are.” She winced, as if embarrassed by this fact. “In fact, I’ve known who you were almost the whole time Skye’s lived here.”

“Oh?”

“It’s just that-- I started to see you come over to visit her often, and-- Skye talks about you a lot.”

Fitz grimaced. That surely didn’t work in his favor.

“And at first I thought you were her boyfriend.” His eyes widened, and he started to shake his head emphatically. “But then she kept having other guys come over, and I figured out that you two were just friends.”

“Right.”

“Basically what I’m saying is--” She took a deep breath, eyes cast on the ceiling before meeting his eyes again. “I’ve had a bit of a crush on you. For-- awhile now. And when Skye invited me for movie night… I only came because she said you were going to be here. Not that I wouldn’t want to spend time with Skye! But-- you were kind of the selling point.”

She bit her lip, brow furrowed. Her words were jumbled in Fitz’s brain; everything after the word “crush” seemed to be processing for him in slow motion, and he was pretty sure he was gaping at her like a dead fish, but he couldn’t seem to find words.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said all that.” She shook her head a few times, then turned back to face forward with her hands on her knees. “I think I’m going to go.”

“No,” was all he could get out. She turned her head to look at him and he could feel the adrenaline thrumming in his veins. Later, he’d think that had to have been what made him do what he did next, which was reach a hand out to cup the back of her neck and pull her close, pausing for the barest second in hopes that she wouldn’t pull away before his lips were moving against hers.

Instead of pulling away, her left hand flew to his upper arm, her right sliding into his hair as she immediately deepened the kiss, all tongue and teeth and tiny sighs. He palmed her waist and used what little brainpower he had left at the moment to try to avoid making any embarrassing noises at the feel of her fingernails at the nape of his neck.

Fitz could hear his heart pounding, loud. Louder than seemed healthy, in fact. Loud enough to pull him from his kissing-induced haze long enough to realize that it wasn’t his heartbeat at all-- it was a thumping knock at the door.

“Guys!” came Skye’s muffled voice. “My hands are full of pizza and CrazyBread and I can’t get to my keys! Come open the door!”

Breaking away from Jemma’s ( _soft, pliant, perfect_ ) mouth may have been the hardest thing he’d ever had to do, but he managed. Taking just a moment to appreciate how heavily she was breathing and how slightly dazed she looked, he rushed to the door, unbolting it and pulling it open.

“Finally! This stuff is heavy!”

His jaw set, Fitz took the boxes out of Skye’s hands and set them down on the table beside the door, still blocking the entryway. “Give me five more minutes and I’ll have my mum set up a baby picture slide show for you over brunch.” Skye’s eyes widened, a smile splitting her face. As she was opening her mouth to respond, he gave her what he hoped was an apologetic look and shut the door in her face. She would forgive him.

Taking a deep breath, Fitz walked back to the couch and sat down next to Jemma-- a bit closer this time. A slow smile grew on her face as she watched him. “It wasn’t supposed to happen like that,” he said, and her smile faltered.

“What? What wasn’t?”

“That.” He gestured between them. “Kissing you.” Fitz reached up to tug at his ear, breathing out slowly. “I… may have had a crush on you, too. For some time now.”

“Really?” Her smile grew impossibly larger, and he nodded again. “Well, I don’t really care how it happened. I’m just glad it happened at all.” She scooted closer to him on the couch, hand trailing up his arm to his bicep again.

“Yeah?” He leaned in closer to her.

“Yeah.” She tilted her face up to his. “Skye’ll be alright, won’t she?” Jemma asked just before their lips met.

He kissed her softly, once, then pulled away enough to answer. “Pretty sure she’s the one who unhooked her DVR. She can take a walk around the block.”

**Author's Note:**

> Want to chat on Tumblr? I'm unbreakablejemmasimmons over there!


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